November 2009

Letter from the Editor

At the end of this summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ­announced it was launching a new online discussion forum to receive public input on future priorities for EPA's national enforcement program. EPA typically sets national enforcement and compliance priorities every three years to direct work toward the most pressing environmental problems. This current effort is directed to the 2011–2013 fiscal years.

EPA's press release states, "[t]he public will be able to provide feedback through the EPA Web site until December 1, giving them a forum to submit ideas for EPA to consider for new areas of enforcement focus. All ideas will be evaluated and considered for recommendation to the EPA administrator about the future direction of EPA's national enforcement and compliance priorities. The current enforcement priorities through 2010 focus on significant environmental problems, including pollution from stormwater runoff, air toxics, concentrated animal feeding operations, and mineral processing."

For information on the enforcement priorities go to: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/data/planning/priorities/index.html. To submit suggestions for potential priorities: http://blog.epa.gov/enforcementnationalpriority.

Lora A. Lucero, AICP
Editor